The Red Sox and Orioles wrap up their four-game series at Fenway Park on Patriots’ Day – at 11am ET. This is always a great Daily Fantasy Baseball kind of day because you get to watch an early game (when else can you watch a game while still drinking your morning coffee?), but then there are no more day games, so you have 12 games at night to choose players from.

With a dozen games going on tonight, and the Patriots’ Day game eliminated, there are some interesting plays for tournaments tonight. The Boston Marathon happens this afternoon, too. That really makes me want to load up on runners in Daily play for some reason, but I’ll hold back.

Has anyone noticed how bad the two best offenses from a year ago have been this month? The Red Sox and Tigers rank well below average, and big hitters like Miguel Cabrera and Dustin Pedroia are struggling to get going. Both teams lost key components this offseason, with Prince Fielder going to Texas and Jacoby Ellsbury heading to the Bronx.

What’s interesting is that nearly all offenses in the majors are struggling this season, so don’t put too much weight in the early down weeks for Boston and Detroit. Those down weeks are making their superstars a little more affordable for Daily Fantasy Baseball play, so let’s look at this glass as half full.

Why are offenses down? There are actually a few reasons, in my opinion.

It has been unseasonably cold this month up north and even in the south. But the northern teams are affected by it more so. Balls just don’t travel as far in dense, cold air.

Pitchers are still ahead of hitters in the early weeks of the season. It’s much more difficult to hit a thrown ball than to throw a ball past a hitter.

The effects of PED suspensions continue to affect the scoring averages across the majors.

Load up your rosters, pretend the other entrants in your tournaments are British soldiers from 1775, and FIRE!!!

Jason Collette takes the lead again on the Daily Fantasy pitching rankings, and we have a handful of aces at the top of the list. King Felix Hernandez is the easy favorite, with a game at home against the free-swinging Astros. His 0.74 WHIP is sure to get even lower after Monday night.

On the other end of the spectrum, he likes the Giants at Rockies game to be great for both lineups. Hopefully, Pablo Sandoval can get untracked.

Also, in a short “ESPN Fantasy Now” video, Tristan Cockcroft discusses why Michael Morse is a great play against the Rockies also.

Richard Valero picks out some of the best “Batter vs. Pitcher” plays of the upcoming evening, and he points out that Pirates 2B Neil Walker looks like a good play against Cincinnati. He also has four home runs over the past week of play.

Beermakersfan lists a few of his favorite plays of the day at each position, including Braves 1B Freddie Freeman, who owns a .509 wOBA and is going up against Tom Koehler at Turner Field. Also suggested is Indians OF Michael Brantley who faces Kansas City’s Jeremy Guthrie.

“He has been one of my favorite OF plays so far this season and I feel like the salaries have yet to catch up because he’s another guy that just flies under the radar and gets the job done. A deeper look will tell you that he’s been solid thus far in 2014 with 16 RBI already and a great matchup on deck with Jeremy Guthrie. As you can probably tell by now, I’ve been picking on Guthrie and Brantley is probably my favorite Cleveland play tonight. He’s gone yard three times over his last six and hasn’t dropped a negative score over his last ten.” — Beermakersfan

One of Dobish’s favorite “Big Ticket” items is Ryan Braun, who goes up against Cashner in Milwaukee. But he really likes starting Braves SP Julio Teheran at home against the Marlins.

”The Miami Marlins have been a surprising team this season…at home. The Fish are 9-4 in the friendly confines of Marlins Park, but a dismal 0-6 on the road. That means Teheran and the Braves should have their way with the visitors. He had a complete game shutout with four strikeouts last time out in Philadelphia. What can he do for an encore?” — Dobish

Brad Johnson points out that the Rockies game and the Red Sox (early) game are two of the four best games according to Ball Park Factors updated daily. Since the Cubs game has some weather concerns, the fourth game to consider is the Brewers game against San Diego.

Brett Talley gets all smart on us and does some analysis on if playing Daily Fantasy Baseball affects our opinions of players in traditional Rotisserie play and vice-versa. He also shares his five favorite picks for Monday, including Oakland’s Dan Straily as a cheaper option, going against the Rangers.

Ian Kinsler is Adam Meyer’s “Must-Start of the Day,” as he faces John Danks tonight.

”Last week, Kinsler batted .364 (8-22) with one home run, seven RBI, and a stolen base. Look for his hot streak to continue since his career numbers against John Danks is favorable (12-37 with four homers). Though Kinsler hasn’t seen many lefties this season, he is still hitting .444 against them (4-9). Plus, in his new Detroit home, Kinsler is 14-41 (.341).” – Meyer

Mike Newman chooses a “quartet of slumping MLB All-Stars” that are worth leaning on for tonight’s matchups.

”Today, Ian Desmond faces Garrett Richards and his career xFIP of four-plus on the road. Washington is in the top-10 for friendliest run scoring ballparks and the Nationals shortstop was 52% better than league average at home versus RHP in 2013.” — Newman

What better way to celebrate the beginning of the American Revolution than to play some Daily Fantasy Baseball games – with a twack of beer!

Follow me @DavidGonos to see what my daily buddies and I choose as our Draft Day Rapid Fire picks!

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Over the past couple weeks, we’ve all seen what Twins 2B Brian Dozier and 1B Chris Colabello have done, and we’ve all expected them to quietly go away.

Dozier, actually, has been one of my favorites since late last season. Unfortunately, for the season, he’s batting just .207, and while he has five home runs, most of them have been solo shots. The best news that prospective Daily Fantasy owners should think about is that his BB% is up to 17.8% through the first month, which is twice as good as any other season in the majors. He’s staying patient, and still showing some power flashes.

On Thursday, both players ended up being the highest scoring Fantasy Baseball hitters of the day, helped by a double-header against Toronto, of course. Dozier went 3-for-8 with a solo shot and four runs scored. Colabello, meanwhile, knocked four runs in, going 5-for-7 on the day.

Colabello is batting .357 with one home run and 19 RBI this season. Did you catch that? One homer, with 19 RBI. He smacked seven homers in 160 at-bats last season, but he’s been hitting more liners than usual, which are finding open grass. Only Giancarlo Stanton has more RBI (21) this season than Colabello.

The Twins travel to Kansas City to play a three-game set against the Royals starting tonight, Fantasy Friday. Dozier and Colabello will go up against journeyman lefty Jason Vargas, so consider them if the price is right.

Fantasy Friday’s Daily Links

Here are the top Daily Fantasy Baseball articles for Fantasy Friday! If I missed any articles, let me know by leaving a comment or tweeting me @DavidGonos.

Chet Gresham looks at the past three years of data for some hitters scheduled to play this evening. He breaks down the list of players by their lefty/righty splits using wOBA, and highlights the handedness of the pitcher he’s facing tonight.

Richard Valero picks a handful of batters he’s fond of tonight, including Orioles slugger Chris Davis, who hits John Lackey to the tune of .344, with 2 HRs and 6 RBI in 32 career at-bats. It’s crazy to think Crush has just one home run through 14 games this season.

“Papi’s surface stats elicit yawns (2 HR in 59 AB), but he’s hitting fly balls at a sharp rate (46%) and is making the best contact rate of his career (86%). This price tag is too low to pass up for a guy capable of a multi-homer game.” — Trexler

Brian Gramling (@briangramling) is back with his rankings for today’s starting pitchers. A couple youngsters hold the top spots in Sonny Gray facing the whiff-happy Astros, and Michael Wacha pitching at Washington. That game should be relatively low scoring, considering Gio Gonzalez (who Gramling ranks third) going for the Nats.

David Wiers takes his turn for Friday, recapping some Fantasy news from yesterday’s games, as well as sharing “The Daily Five” picks for Draft Kings, including Prince Fielder going up against Angels SP Jered Weaver.

“At home + having the platoon advantage = Prince busting out of his early season slump.” — Wiers

Good luck!

Let’s start this weekend off right with some big wins on Daily Fantasy Friday!

Follow me @DavidGonos to see what my daily buddies and I choose as our Draft Day Rapid Fire picks!

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of what these guys do on a nightly basis, going through and handpicking some of the best tweets and tidbits from the day’s action. It’s a nice primer for starting the day in baseball.

It’s just crazy to think that Chris Colabello is leading the American League with 11 RBI so far. He’s seeing the ball really well, right now, and he’ll face off against lefty Scott Kazmir this afternoon! Colabello’s already up in the $8,000 range on Draft Day, but he’s $3,900 at Draft Kings, and $2,500 on FanDuel. The salaries have climbed a bit this past week, but he could still be a bargain in the early matchups.

(With that said, he’s a 30-year-old slugger, whose batting average should dip considerably sooner than later. I’m not a huge fan of him in traditional Fantasy play just yet.)

Fellow Rays fan (and current Fantasy Baseball Writer of the Year) Jason Collette takes care of the Daily Notes today. He likes Cardinals’ SP Michael Wacha at home against the Reds (Joey Votto’s not having the best start to the season), and then John Lackey against Texas.

Interestingly, he also has Reds SP Tony Cingrani ranked third, so he must expect a low-scoring Cards/Reds affair. Load up on Red Sox against SP Tanner Scheppers, however. He’s also not a fan of Matt Moore pitching at Kansas City.

<blockquote>” Tampa Bay has a history of poor play in Kansas City and Moore is struggling with his command this spring. That’s a bad combination when facing a Royals team that has the third-highest walk rate in the league at 11.2 percent.” – Collette</blockquote>

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Remember that time a guy named Tanner Scheppers ruined your Fantasy Opening Day? … Yeah, that sucked. He was a horrible early April Fool’s Day prank on all of us.

Lesson learned: Don’t lean on a guy that’s making his first ever start – on Opening Day. As a matter of fact, Scheppers was the first player since 1981 to make his first career start on Opening Day. (Although, the guy in ’81 was Fernando Valenzuela.)

Don’t worry, though, as you can tell – you weren’t the only one to get “Scheppered,” with minus-14 points from the youngster. As a matter of fact, Scheppers was the most purchased player on DraftDay.com yesterday, as he was rostered on 29.9 percent of Monday’s lineups. He only cost $5,000, though, which is likely the reason. He was the lowest scoring player on the day. You would have had 14 more points if you used David Gonos as your starting pitcher.

You could have paid three times Scheppers’ salary and picked Stephen Strasburg, who was the second-most used player at 23.6 percent. While he scored 29 points, that was a mediocre fantasy output compared to other aces with similar prices, like Adam Wainwright (51), Felix Hernandez (49) and Jose Fernandez (47).

They have Kyle Lohse ranked second, at home against Atlanta, and that seems even a little crazier. Is this an April Fool’s joke? I’m not buying it.

Unlike Opening Day, there aren’t any big matchups between two stud pitchers, but I do like Alex Cobb against the Blue Jays, and starter Drew Hutchinson. This seems like a slam dunk to me – you know, like Scheppers.

Dobish warns about playing any Indians and A’s on Tuesday, as there is a 100-percent chance of precipitation, and you might be left with some empty roster spots because of a rainout.

“The weather forecast looked grim for Monday’s game, too, but the weather pulled out to the east of the Bay Area and the opener was played without a hitch. Currently, the forecast states a 100 percent chance of precipitation from 7pm PT through 10pm PT, so there could very well be a delay or postponement. However, check back later in the afternoon before finalizing your roster. Things could very well clear up such as they did Monday.” – @DanielEDobish

Dobish also likes some of the Yankees players today, as they have their Opening Day a day later than the rest. He suggests Derek Jeter against an overmatched Astros team.